The angle of incidence of the top of the cabanes checks out at exactly 2 degrees with the wedge jig, but the wing itself shows a little more with my custom airfoil jig. The difference of incidence between the upper and lower wings is a correct 2 degrees though. I am considering giving the wings a little washout by setting the tips at 2 degrees.Will ask Gene about that .

Drilled plates for 1/8" rivets and attached them to the middle leg of the N strut. I will hold off the attachment to the other strut tubes until I talk to Gene.

Made 4 cable ends looped though attach plates with copper Nicopress sleeves.

Gene said, in his usual "keep the answers short" style: angle of incidence, no problem ; flying cables to replace rear strut, OK; landings wires, to the front of cabanes .They use a little L shaped bracket where the cables rub against the root rib. I would prefer no rubbing, and will design an attach fitting.

I finished drilling and riveting the strut plates, after cheching squareness and equidistance one more time.

Made and fit ailerons push rods with 1/4" threaded rod ends riveted with two 3/32" battering hard rivets and 1/4"Aurora MW4 rod end bearings.Used brass bushings to use  AN3 bolts in the 1/4" bores. Had to notch wingwalk supports to fit push rod in right wing. The distance between the holes in the aileron control horn was not sufficent to fit Aurora bearings , so I had to use the clevis forks. All right side aileron hardware is now connected and working . As noted before ,  deflection of top wing aileron is more than lower wing aileron.

Mounted a 2 lug AN366F fiber nut over a large washer with 2 small screws on the inside of the ailerons root rib, to screw in a hinge bolt. That will be easier the using the pin and reversing the hinge as I did the first two ailerons. I will go back and do those the same.

Sanded the nose ribs of the last 2 ailerons and the notched the ribs1/32"so the nose skin will be level with the ribs. Varnished the inside of the leading edge skin of the last 2 ailerons, after marking the glue lines. Glued them on and held them with masking tape.

Picked up Dick Simpson and brought him over to look at the plane. We talked a good while about all the systems, and he answered a number of questions. I also looked at his Tiger firewall and engine mount. The vertical front members are doubled , and there is a 3/8" plywood plate to back the washers on the bolts. The mount has 2 vertical 3/4" square tubing and horizontal ones too. The rest is 1/2" and 3/4" steel tubing.

Before I drill for the aileron control horn, I am considering moving it up a little to increase the lever arm. That would prevent the push rod from rubbing , and increase the lateral movement of the stick.

Prepared order from Aircraft Spruce.

Fitted lower left aileron horn as exactly as possible as the right one.

I thought at first the stick could travel more sideways, but after sitting in the cockpit, I decided it was about right.

Glued plywood blocks to the back of the rib geodetic where the horns attach so the big flat washers have a flat surface to press on.

I don't like the 8 struts holding the tail together, and want to use only 1 front lower strut made of a flat 3/16"x3/4" aluminum sandwiched between two pieces of spruce shaped for streamlining, and replace the others with 3/32" cables and turnbuckles.

Sanded and spackled last 2 ailerons.

Sanded ailerons and put them in the wings.

Made attach brackets for cables on tail section out of 1/8"x1" aluminum bar. The cable thimbles go through the 1/4" holes.

Made re-enforcing plates for aileron hinges out of 1/8"x1 1/4" aluminum flat bar., and riveted them on the back side of the hinge brackets with four 3/32" battering rivets. Drilled both hinge and plate 3/8" and inserted bronze bushings.It is much stronger now. I did not feel safe having only 1/8" or so of aluminum around the bushing.

I attached the hinges back using a 2 lug nut attached to the back of the rear spar with two small screws over a drilled oversise washer. That way,the hinge brackets can be installed from the outside, and there will be no need for an access plate in the wing.

Made raised wood mounting plates around the N strut attachment brackets to trim the hole neatly with a fitted metal plate after covering.

I felt the aileron bay trailing edge was too flimsy, and would bow under the pull of the fabric  covering, so I added small plywood supports in between ribs . Big difference.

Glued the rest of the aileron bays braces .

Modified aileron hinges with bronzed bushings and 1/4" axles. The bushings touch in the center , everything fits tight , and the bellcrack turns freely.

Trimmed all four aileron bay trailing edges so ailerons move 22 degrees up and 18 degrees down( those are the current specs), and there is still about 1/8" clearance at full travel. Upper wing ailerons travel is a little more.

Moved bellcranks as far up as possible on the front spars. Glued 3/8" plywood blocks to the front of the spar to make it flush with the spar cap. Plugged previous holes with dowels. Attached brackets with K1000 lug nuts screwed down over drilled AN970-3 washers.

Worked on last aileron bay.

Cut floor for luggage compartment out of1/16" plywood, notched to fit.

Glued some 1/2"x1/8" strips to geodetic to get a level gluing surface.

Finished left pushrod and linked all ailerons. They work pretty well. A little lateral play in the stick will have to be tightened up with a bushing.

Added a 1/8" ply gusset to the back of the fuselage handle blocks.

Strapped trim cable bowden sleeve to bulkheads .

Installed  two 1/4" aluminum pitot lines from root to front strut plate.

Removed lower left wing.

Sanded and re spackled rudder smooth.

Glued in luggage compartment floor and weighted it down to dry.

Varnished last two ailerons, rudder, and one side of lower left wing.

Made the rest of the wire attachment brackets out of 1/8"x 1" aluminum.

Made the two tail struts out of 1/8"x1 1/4" aluminum. They will be stiffened by 2 streamlined varnished wood strips .

Made 1/8" plywood plates around the attach points of the top left wing, with wood supports so they are level with the ribs.

Varnished one side of top left wing, and other side of rudder and trim tab.

Varnished other side of top left wing with a brush. It takes for ever. So I decided to try spraying the rest.

I replaced my air regulator/oiler/filter unit that was leaking badly, and bought a cheap basic low pressure spray gun at Harbor Freight for $11.99 on sale.

Well, believe it or not, it works fine for my purpose, which is spraying varnish on a bunch of little slats and ribs, with as little overspray as possible. In fact, I went to get a second one to have a spare canister of mineral spirits to clean it  between uses. It is so basic there is really not much to clean.

Sprayed one side of last 2 ailerons after a final sanding with 220 sand paper . Turned the fan nozzle horizontal and reduced flow to minimum to limit waste. Tu

Stretched a piece of the light weight Polyfiber fabric that came with the kit on the second test frame.

Tightened it at 250 degrees with the little Black Baron iron, setting the temperature with the little Coverite coil thermometer.

Cut out four D shaped 1/8" plywood mounting plates for inspection doors on sides of fuselage at the two rear bulkhead locations. Used shims to level geodetic to an even gluing surface. Built up hinge attachment member.

Bought 4" brass hinges and small acorn nuts and screws.

Ironed fabric on frame at 350 degrees.

Cut  four aluminum inspection doors out of .032 thick aluminum.

Shaped four pieces of wood to streamline the flat aluminum tail struts. Attached them with brass screws and acorn nuts.

Glued plywood plates in place, after cutting a slit to mount hinge through. Drilled and mounted hinges on doors with small flat head brass screws and acorn nuts.

Sanded circle pattern on one of the doors.

Drilled plates and doors for wing studs and Southco clip fasteners. These fit on the 1/8" plywood plates fine.

Antiqued one side of the stretched frame with artist oil paints and liquin.

Received the gas gauge today. The tank will have to be drilled and a mounting plate welded on top to fit the sensor.

Lightly sanded with 220 sandpaper and sprayed a light coat of varnish on the LL and UL wings, and the other side of the rudder and ailerons.

Lightly sanded with 220 sandpaper and brushed a thinned coat of epoxy varnish on one side of rudder, elevator, trim tab, and 2 ailerons .

Varnished steamlining pieces for stabilizor struts.

Lightly sanded with 220 sandpaper and spayed a coat of varnish on other side of LL and UL wings.

Varnished other side of rudder, elevator and ailerons with epoxy. Also varnished the fuselage stringers to use up what was mixed.

Modified LR aileron push rod with smaller tubing.

Made a 1/8" plywood plates for both lower wings, with elongated hole to get push rods through, and cover with leather(slit) and an aluminum or copper plate .

Sanded both LL and LR wings lightly one more time.

Took down the right wings. Made 1/8" plywood plates for strut attach points on bottom of upper wing.

Added gussets to wing tips.

Spackled trailing edges.

Lazy Sunday...  Practiced with the fabric covering the trim tab. Realised the tape I bought was medium weight. The Poly-Fiber light certified tape is quite expensive, so I am thinking of buying the 2" tape I need most of to tape ribs and longerons, and cutting the 4" straight and bias tape out of the extra fabric, since I am not covering the plywood sides and bottom.

Tried to give a coat of Poly-Brush on top of my oil paint antiquing, but found it lifted and left white brush marks. I could try to spray the last 2 coats of Poly-Brush, since the brush marks show too. Or I could do the antiquing after the 3 coats of Poly-Brush.

Sanded and spackled some more on top wings and ailerons.

Lightly sanded stabilizer.

Glued missing 1" ply strips at root of one upper wing.

Found a basic Black & Decker Quick'n Easy iron Model 300 at Ace hardware, and calibrated it with the little coil thermometer. You have to always set the temperature by turning the knob clockwise from the off position, and not back up counter clockwise, as there seems to be some play in it.

Bought pinking shears.

More sanding, spackling and varnishing . The varnish is getting to me again, even though I bought a new respirator. I suppose the problem is that with my beard, I cannot get a good fit.

Tried to cover and aileron, but the epoxy varnish lifted. I had not realized it was supposed to cure for 7 days... Bummer. I might just forget about it and just use the Polyurethane varnish, which does not seem to lift. That is what Fisher does, and what Dave did.

I am really under the weather today with that varnish allergy. Just a little more varnishing

Still under the weather. More varnishing

More varnishing.

Decided to use 3/4" square 4130 chrome alloy tubing for motor mount, with 1/2" round braces. Called Gene about it and he said it would be fine, and recommended wall thicknesses of .049 for the square and .058 for the round. Also decided to use a horizontal piece of 3/4" square tubing welded across the top of he engine mount , with 2 bolts going through the top horizontal member, which I will re-enforce at the attach points with 3/8" ply blocks.

I re-enforced the two vertical members behind the firewall with a 1/8" and a 3/8" plywood strips glued to the inside. Also added a 1/8" ply strip on each side of the boot to have a level surface to bolt the engine mount.

I cannot believe I did not notice before that the leading edge was upside down on the wing that was already built when I got the kit...You can see in the picture it kind of curls up!

Finished re-enforcing front vertical members with a 3/8"plywood plate.

Re-enforced top horizontal member at each end the same way.

Glued firewall bow onto top part of firewall to provide attachment for the cowling and turtle deck.

Talked to Steve at Florida Flyers today. He will ship the engine on Monday.